1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a device for collecting a plurality of square commodities such as square cylindrical paper containers for milk and juice into a group.
2. Prior Art
In order to collect a plurality of square commodities into a group to pack or wrap them, such a method has been employed that the commodities conveyed by a conveyor are individually pushed out sideways by a pusher. However, this method is inefficient because only one commodity is handled by one operation of the pusher.
Further, during collecting and packing of the commodities it is sometimes desired to be change the packing pattern so that five commodities, for example, may form one set or two rows containing five commodities each may be formed. However, the above described method cannot fully satisfy the above requirements.
As a means to overcome the above disadvantages, there is a device shown in Japanese Patent Application No. 59-0350079 wherein a tapered or inclined pusher is employed. The pusher is provided with continuous stages. Each of the stages longitudinally and laterally has substantially the said dimensions with respect to the length and width of a square commodity. Commodity groups in which the commodities are longitudinally adjacent to each other and form rows are loaded into a pusher set by set so that the pusher is then moved forward a length corresponding to one commodity after each loading.
The above device overcomes the above described disadvantages; however, on the other hand, it has the following disadvantage. When the pusher is forwarded, the corner of a commodity may catch on the adjacent commodity thus crashing into one of many square commodities. The row of commodities is thus disordered and the collecting operation is disrupted.